The invention herein described concerns a process and means for the filling and sealing of the lubricant reservoir located within the pivot of lubricated turning pairs in particular track link pivots and crawler track rollers.
These said turning pairs are those constituted either by a pivot-bush arrangement which provides the special articulated coupling between the spaced pairs of links which carry the track's members, or those constituted by roller-support pivot couplings in the track's guide rollers, or the rollers of a belt stretcher.
For some time now there have been lubricated turning pairs, that is, turning pairs having within the pivot a coaxially disposed cylindrical enclosure serving as a reservoir for viscous lubricating oil, which reservoir communicates with the coupling's surface areas thus maintaining them in constant lubrication. The actual filling of the said reservoir is achieved by the ejection of the lubricating oil from an appropriately designed nozzle, and, once the nozzle has been removed, subsequent insertion of a screwed or forced plug in order to seal the reservoir mouth.
Such a series of operations poses certain problems, due mainly to the fact that it is necessary both to expel the air from the reservoir and the parts to be lubricated in order to make way for the lubricating oil and, after the filling stage, to ensure rapid closure of the reservoir mouth so as to prevent any loss of lubricating oil from the reservoir.